Regis Corporation reports earnings today. Short sellers are already heading for the exit.
Short interest fell 10% over the past week to 1.98% of free float. Cost to borrow dropped 55% in the same period, settling at 2.47% APR. The lending market has loosened sharply — availability is ample, with the borrow pool far from stressed.
The stock fell 5.5% on Tuesday. Yet options traders leaned hard into calls. The put/call ratio hit 0.0474 — nearly two standard deviations below the 20-day mean of 0.052. That's near the 52-week low of 0.0468.
Call dominance this extreme during a price drop is unusual. It suggests some traders see the selloff as an entry point rather than a signal to hedge.
The borrow cost tells a clean story. Through April, CTB sat in a 5–5.5% range. It started falling sharply in early May. By May 12, it had dropped to 2.47%.
Short interest followed the same path. Shares short have declined from roughly 54,500 to 49,000 over the past month. At under 2% of free float, the short position is modest.
The ORTEX short score stands at 38.9 — neither extreme. The DTC rank is elevated at 92, reflecting thin average daily volume rather than a crowded short.
Regis reports today at 12:30 UTC. The last print in February moved the stock down 4.3% on day one and 4.8% over five days. Short sellers appear to have pre-positioned for a calmer outcome this time — or at least decided not to hold through the print.
What to watch: Whether the call-dominant options positioning proves prescient, or whether the earnings result reverses the short covering trend.
Data summary
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